Project: Sandstorm (Web of Spider-Man 107-108)

Web of Spider-Man 107-108. I didn’t have these comics in my original collection. I bought them a lot later. It’s not that I didn’t want them, it’s just that I didn’t know that I wanted them. When I first started collecting Amazing Spider-Man, I wasn’t even really aware that other Spider-Man titles existed—let alone had interconnected storylines!

It’s fun reading through these now to see what I missed all those years ago. What key details didn’t I have? What final piece of the puzzle will finally snap into place and resolve the previously inexplicable Spider-Man mysteries? What profound new realization awaits me?

Not much in Web of Spider-Man, but let me tell you, while this may be “filler” material, it’s totally rad 90’s filler material. If you compare it to the Death of Tombstone storyline, which was unbearable and generic 90’s filler material, at least Project: Sandstorm’s major failure was that it was too ambitious, too busy, and too rad to the max.

NOOOOO!


If you’re a fan of the superhero genre, you’ll know that too many villains jammed into a single movie doesn’t lead anywhere good. Spider-Man 3 is a classic example, which not only featured the sandman, venom, and a green goblin/surfer dude (the green surfer?!), but also featured bonus villain fights of Spider-Man versus the alien symbiote, Christopher Young’s score versus your ears, and Sam Raimi’s awesome bullshit versus your preconceived notions of how a cool dude walks down the street. That’s 6 villains! Sufferin’ Spider-Webs!*

In the 90’s, there was a new breed of filler issues that would simply forego the story altogether and instead, focus on cramming in as many crossover characters as possible. The epitome of this was Maximum Carnage, a demented yet kickass 14-parter where nothing happened but everyone was there anyway. A lesser version of this kind of 90’s filler is Project: Sandstorm, a meagre 2-parter which at least had a theme... the darkness that dwells within the hearts of all good men and the existence of an objective moral truth. 

Haha, just kidding, the theme was sand. They got all the sand-based characters together for no reason and then invented a new sand-based character for them to fight. And when I say they put them together for no reason, I mean it. Sandman and Quicksand are just there all of a sudden and they’re on a team for some (or maybe no) reason. But who cares? Issue 2 is just characters yelling either “sandman”, “quicksand”, or “sandstorm” at one another while using their sand-based powers to fight in a giant cloud of sand while making sand puns (heavy on things like "sandblasted" or "grit"). Spider-Man’s there, I guess, but does he really need to be? 
Yeah, it’s 90’s epic all right. I mean just look at this—pure chaos.

The major upside? Saviuk’s on top of his game. The art is awesome, albeit frenetic.

...


*yeah, you thought I made up that "Sufferin' Spider-webs" thing, huh! Wrong. Check out Spider-Man in Avengers 3, below.


 Looking good, Spidey. Looking reeeeeeeeal good.

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